Wednesday, 27 June 2012

The Flash - Structure and story.

The Flash is by far my favored super hero. One of the things I have always enjoyed about him is how both Wally and Barry where fueled by their lives. Everything they did in their costumes was the result of something that was effecting them in their private lives.

During the run up to the Flashpoint event Barry was getting charged up for seeking closure on his mothers killing and that fueled his passion and moved the story ever forwards. Iris had always been there as lis lightening rod giving him a reason, something to fight for.

Wally was a family man first and a super hero second, everything he did was a reaction to this fact. He would see a problem and the response was to protect his family. Granted 99.9% of the time protecting his family was accomplished by being the best damned Flash he could be.

My point is that his heroism was a response not a blind battle. Massive chunks of story took place out of costume. This time helped the reader to bond with the character and have an emotional investment when he became endangered.

In the New 52 The Flash started strong we saw a relationship developing between Barry and Patty Spivot, then we saw that Iris West was still a player in Barry's life (giving us hope that we would see Wally speeding in soon) as well as 'Mob Rule' being a formidable and interesting enemy that was fueled with the passion of Barry's childhood friend, it was a quality start to the New 52.
Now however we have moved forwards and we have a myriad of open plot lines and an almost pointless full issue cameo from Gorilla Grod (issue 9.) Next issue we encounter Weather Wizard but we still have Iris stuck in the speed force, Patty globe trotting, a city against the Flash, the piper making a come back, Speed force generated holes in time and space and no cross over with Teen Titans Bart Alan (we are all waiting for it right?)

As much as I enjoy the art in the New 52 Flash I have to face palm at the clustered mess that the story is in.

The best flash stories are science fiction ones, even though they often become layered and complicated the flash always has a direction to run in. At the moment I feel like he is lost. Maybe we will see this pulled together in the next few issues but at the moment it is less than impressive and feels like the writers have forgotten about all of those loose ends.

of all the New 52 titles The Flash has the best art, by a long way however the quality of the story does not keep up. Let's hope that we see a more structured narrative a this chapter of the story draws to an ever near close.